First let’s start off by acknowledging that Fujifilm has performed a tremendous feat by producing not just one, but three superlative, fast prime lenses for the medium format world. Fast primes have long been the domain of 35mm sensors (or full frame, as they’re called) and have traditionally been a weak point for digital medium format. Fujifilm has really changed that.

But it’s one thing to create a product, it’s another to create a product that exceeds expectations. The GF 110mm/2.0 Lens was an across the board winner in that regard. And the GF 80mm followed suit. Does the GF 55mm lens have what it takes? As you can see, it’s very very similar in size to the 80mm/1.7. But there are some design differences – the 80mm/1.7 has 12 elements in 10 groups, with 9 rounded blades, while the 55mm/1.7 has 14 elements in 10 groups and 11 rounded blades.

With fast primes, whether you always shoot wide open or not, you buy the lens because you will at least at some point want to shoot it wide open, and so wide open performance is really a critical benchmark. What we see in this quick test is that at f/1.7, the GF 55mm is just sharp as a tack. This is not a case of pretty good wide open. It rocks wide open with no need to stop down unless you want more depth of field. Another aspect I liked is that you can really push in with the 55mm, which has a minimum focus distance of 1.6 ft vs the 2.3 ft of the 80mm.

Well done, Fujifilm.

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